Crime and Punishment In England

 Justice was based on unwritten custom during the Early Middle Ages  Few written laws existed, and were mostly lists of fines to paid as a form of punishment for specific crimes  The purpose of laws were mainly to stop feuding among families  Custom focused on the right of the individual to be tried by their equals (peers)  Custom also included lords

The role of the feudal lord  Charlemagne was the first king to establish a royal court  Royal justices were sent out to maintain law and order  The feudal lord was responsible for presiding over two courts  The lord’s court was concerned with the matters of vassals (lesser nobles) who were loyal to the lord  The Manor Court was concerned with matters of the peasants living on the manor

 If a conflict occurred between the lord and his vassal it was settled by war or by a trial by combat  Trial by combat- the accused knight would fight another knight in personal combat  Members of the clergy and women were not able to engage in personal combat, so a champion knight was chose to fight for them

The Manor Court  Presided over by the lord or his deputy known as the bailiff  Usually concerned with the minor crimes of peasants such as stealing your neighbor’s firewood and the punishment was usually a fine

Trial by Ordeal  The accused was put through a trying physical test  The verdict of guilty or innocent was believed to be decided by God  Example the accused would put their hand in a pot of boiling water, and then bandaged  If the blisters became infected after 3 days the person was found guilty

King Henry II  Made several reforms to the legal system  the 12 man jury reported back to the royal justice what they knew about the accused and the crime  Jurors were selected from the local people  No witnesses appeared before the jurors and no evidence was presented  The role of the judge was to decide the punishment based on the information they received from the 12 jurors